Are sermons really important? Does the impact of a 15-45 minute message (depending on church) really justify the focus and effort that goes into it?
Well, it depends doesn't it? We've all (i expect) sat through some truly tedious and pointless sermons and also been blessed amazed and transformed by others. Now, of course, credit for the transforming goes first to the Holy Spirit, but let's not underestimate the power of a really bad sermon to quench the Spirit either, eh!?
But anyway, while I believe in the importance of biblical preaching, that's not the question I want to address today. I want to flip the question a little for this post. In churches where I've had a preaching role we generally aimed for a 25-30 minute sermon (and frequently ran over). If there is a 100 people in the congregation that amounts to at least 2500 minutes of congregational time, or about 41.6 hours. How should we value that time? Does $30 (NZD) an hour seem reasonable? (if it was a congregation of plumbers it would be 3x that!) At the rather low rate of $30, a short sermon to a small congregation is worth at least $1,250. Does that seem like a lot?
My question is, do we put into the sermon - time, study, resources, thought - anything like what it is worth in terms of the congregation's time in listening to it? I suspect that, in those places that they do, there are less questions about the importance of the sermon and more appreciation and expectation around the act of preaching.
Let me know what you think :-)
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